International
disputes: Algeria and many other states reject Moroccan administration of Western Sahara; the Polisario Front, exiled in Algeria, represents the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic; Algeria's border with Morocco remains an irritant to bilateral relations, each nation accusing the other of harboring militants and arms smuggling; dormant disputes include Libyan claims of about 32,000 sq km still reflected on its maps of southeastern Algeria and the National Liberation Front's (FLN) assertions of a claim to Chirac Pastures in southeastern Morocco

Geography

Nearly four times the size of Texas and the largest country on the continent, Algeria is bordered on the west by
Morocco and Western Sahara and on the east by Tunisia and Libya. The
Mediterranean Sea is to the north, and to the south are Mauritania, Mali,
and Niger. The Saharan region, which is 85% of the country, is almost
completely uninhabited. The highest point is Mount Tahat in the Sahara,
which rises 9,850 ft (3,000 m).

Government

Parliamentary republic.

History

Excavations in Algeria have indicated that Homo erectus resided
there between 500,000 and 700,000 years ago. Phoenician traders settled on
the Mediterranean coast in the 1st millennium
B.C. As ancient Numidia, Algeria became a Roman colony, part of
what was called Mauretania Caesariensis, at the close of the Punic Wars
(145 B.C.). Conquered by the Vandals about
A.D. 440, it fell from a high state of
civilization to virtual barbarism, from which it partly recovered after an
invasion by Arabs about 650. Christian during its Roman period, the
indigenous Berbers were then converted to Islam. Falling under the control
of the Ottoman Empire by 1536, Algiers served for three centuries as the
headquarters of the Barbary pirates. Ostensibly to rid the region of the
pirates, the French occupied Algeria in 1830 and made it a part of France
in 1848.

Algerian independence movements led to the uprisings of
1954–1955, which developed into full-scale war. In 1962, French
president Charles de Gaulle began the peace negotiations, and on July 5,
1962, Algeria was proclaimed independent. In Oct. 1963, Ahmed Ben Bella
was elected president, and the country became Socialist. He began to
nationalize foreign holdings and aroused opposition. He was overthrown in
a military coup on June 19, 1965, by Col. Houari Boumédienne, who
suspended the constitution and sought to restore economic stability. After
his death, Boumédienne was succeeded by Col. Chadli Bendjedid in
1978. Berbers rioted in 1980 when Arabic was made the country's only
official language. Algeria entered a major recession after world oil
prices plummeted in the 1980s.

First Parliamentary Elections

The fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front (Front Islamique du Salut;
FIS) won the largest number of votes in the country's first-ever
parliamentary elections in Dec. 1991. To thwart the electoral results, the
army canceled the general election, which plunged the country into a
bloody civil war. An estimated 100,000 people have been massacred by
Islamic terrorists since war began in Jan. 1992. The undeclared civil war
escalated in its brutality and senselessness in 1997–1998. Islamic
extremists, who had originally focused their attacks on government
officials and then shifted to intellectuals and journalists, abandoned
political motivations entirely and targeted defenseless villagers. The
mass slaughters were as savage as they were random, and the government was
markedly ineffectual in stemming the violence.

Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika's ascension to the presidency in April 1999 was
initially expected to bring peace and some economic improvement to this
desperate war-torn country. Bouteflika, however, remains locked in power
struggles with the military, whose support is crucial. Despite the
appearance of democracy, Algeria remains in essence a military
dictatorship. In 2001 violence by Islamic militants was again on the rise,
and the long-disaffected Berber minority engaged in several large-scale
protests.

Attempts at Reform

In April 2004 presidential elections, praised by international monitors
for their fairness, incumbent Bouteflika won 85% of the vote. Bouteflika
stated that his second term would be devoted to solving the three-year-old
crisis in the Berber region of Kabylia, freeing women from restrictive
family codes, and bringing about “true national
reconciliation” caused by the civil war. The country's dire economic
situation has improved slightly, but Algeria still faces a high
unemployment rate.

In Oct. 2005, Algerians approved a controversial referendum sponsored
by Bouteflika, the Charter on Peace and National Reconciliation, which
grants amnesty to all Islamists and military officials involved in the
country's bloody civil war. There is considerable doubt whether
reconciliation is possible without holding anyone accountable, and the
president's plan has been referred to as one of amnesia rather than
amnesty.

Reconciliation Efforts Are Thwarted by Acts of Terror

In April 2007, about 35 people were killed and hundreds wounded when
suicide bombers attacked a government building in Algiers and a police
station on the outskirts of the capital. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
claimed responsibility for the attack. The terrorist group struck again in
December, killing as many as 60 people in two suicide attacks near UN
offices and government buildings in the capital of Algeria. The bombings
occur within minutes of each other. It was the worst attack in Algeria in
more than 10 years.

In June 2008, President Bouteflika replaced Prime Minister Abdelaziz
Belkhadem with Ahmed Ouyahia, who had served twice as premier.

At least 43 people were killed in August 2008, when a suicide bomber
drove an explosives-laden car into a police academy in Issers, a town in
northern Algeria. The next day, two car bombs exploded simultaneously at a
military command and a hotel in Bouira, killing a dozen people. No group
takes responsibility for the attacks, but Algerian officials said they
suspected Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was behind the bombings.

In November 2008, Parliament approved constitutional changes that allow
President Bouteflika to run for a third term. The opposition criticized
the move, calling it an assault on democracy. Bouteflika went on to win
reelection in April 2009, taking more than 90% of the vote.

The opposition's hope for gaining influence and a voice in government were dashed in parliamentary elections in May 2012. A coalition of moderate Islamist parties were optimistic that they could ride the wave of change and reform that has swept the region since the Arab Spring of 2011. But the coalition won only 48 out of 463 seats, and accused the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN), which took 220 seats, of fraud.

Dozens of People Killed in Hostage Crisis

On Jan. 16, 2013, Islamic militants took dozens of foreign hostages at the BP-controlled In Amenas gas field in eastern Algeria, near the Libyan border. Algerian officials said the militants were members of an offshoot of al-Qaeda called Al Mulathameen and were acting in retaliation for France's intervention in nearby Mali to beat back militants who had crossed into government-controlled areas. On Jan. 17, Algerian troops stormed the complex and attacked the kidnappers. By the end of the standoff on Jan. 20, 29 militants and 37 hostages were killed. Three Americans were among the dead. The Algerian government was criticized for its heavy-handed approach to the crisis but remained unapologetic.

On Sept. 3, 2012, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika named Abdelmalek Sellal as prime minister. The government's main cabinet positions remained unchanged.

On March 13, 2014, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal resigned in order to run the reelection campaign of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Energy Minister Youcef Yousfi was appointed prime minister. Bouteflika was reelected to a fourth term in April 2014, taking 81% of the vote. The opposition, led by Ali Benflis, who challenged Bouteflika and received 12% of the vote, claimed there were "serious irregularities" in the election.